Aircraft are generally designed to carry their maximum load in the fuselage and/or wings of the aircraft. The fuselage of the aircraft is where any loads are stored in flight. In modern military aircraft, it is common for the aircraft to have ample thrust to carry larger loads than can fit within its fuselage. One way to take advantage of this extra thrust is to place these oversized loads externally. These external loads are attached to mounts on the wings or fuselage. An example of an aircraft 20 with a plurality of oversized loads 22, is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Unfortunately, these oversized loads 22 result in additional drag that limits the range of the aircraft. Expandable bays have been suggested as a solution to carry oversized loads. FIG. 3 shows a concept of an aircraft 50 with an expandable bay 52. The expandable bay 52 has access doors 54 and a front and back fairing 56, 58. One difficulty in producing an effective expandable bay 52 is producing a fairing that does not require significant space in the fuselage.
Thus, there exists a need for a fairing for an expandable bay of an aircraft that does not require significant space in the fuselage.